Dispensers for articles such as tissues are well known in the art. Such articles may be supplied dry or soaked/impregnated in liquid or lotion e.g. a cleaning agent, a solvent, a skin treating preparation, etc. Typically tissues have a generally rectangular shape and are supplied as separably connected sheets or interleaved, discrete sheets stacked in a variety of different configurations, to facilitate the so-called pop-up effect, where each tissue has a leading portion that is first to pass through the opening, and a trailing portion that later passes through the opening i.e. a leading tissue removed from a package drags a leading edge of a sequential tissue into a standby position so it extends at a convenient removal position.
Most containers for such articles typically are in soft-pack form or in box form, i.e. in the shape of a parallelepiped or cylindrical (e.g. in the case of separably connected tissues in a reel). In a pop-up dispenser, a leading tissue (may also referred to as a first tissue or a standby tissue) usually extends through an opening of the dispenser into an elevation above that of the dispenser. The user grasps the exposed, leading portion of the leading tissue, without the necessity of inserting fingers through the opening.
A common arrangement is to provide a narrow dispensing opening through which the tissues are pulled, one at a time, by the user. The narrow opening has two main purposes:
A. At an interleaved arrangement, the trailing portion of a first tissue to be dispensed overlaps the leading portion of the next tissue to be dispensed. As the first tissue is withdrawn by the user, the leading portion of the next tissue is pulled through the opening, for later dispensing. The tissues are folded against one another in a variety of configurations so that the friction of the trailing portion of the withdrawn sheet against the succeeding sheet pulls the leading portion of the succeeding sheet through the opening. A narrow opening is thus required to give rise to sufficient friction force to ensure separating of the interleaved sheets.                A narrow gap at a dispensing opening for separably connected sheets, is required for effective separation of the sheets, i.e. tearing along a perforation line. At times, facing edges of the dispensing opening are pointed, to improve separation of the sheets.        
B. In case of moisturized tissues the narrow opening may further serve to squeeze the tissues as they are retracted through the dispenser opening, to thereby ensure that the tissues are not dripping-wet and further to retain sufficient liquid in the package.
At an initial position of a tissue package, of any of the above types, the leading edge of the first tissue is disposed within the package and it is necessary to introduce the leading edge through the narrow passage of the dispensing opening. This is also the case where a refill tissue pack is introduced into the package/container and also if for some reason the leading edge of the first tissue detaches from the grabbing dispensing opening and falls back into the package.
One problem frequently encountered in pop-up dispensing packages of the prior art is that the opening through which the tissue is dispensed must be large enough to allow the consumer to reach his or her fingers therethrough to grasp the tissue and begin the pop-up dispensing process. However, as herein above mentioned, the opening must be small enough to constrict the tissues dispensed therethrough, so that a tissue may be separated from succeeding tissues.
According to some arrangements a narrow dispensing opening is provided by means of two or more flaps projecting towards each other, leaving an interstice therebetween, where the surfaces may be deformed to allow a user to introduce his/her fingers there through, so as to pull the leading edge of the first tissue. This however, is inconvenient and may even result in injury of the users fingers.
Other arrangements are disclosed in some U.S. Patents, for example:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,516,001 discloses a dispensing opening having a large aperture and an arcuately shaped smaller aperture which are spaced apart and connected by an isthmic connection. Tissues may be easily withdrawn by the user through the large aperture, and fed through the isthmic connection to small aperture. Thereafter, the tissues may be dispensed through the small aperture in a pop-up mode.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,499,626 discloses a dispensing element including at least one larger aperture and a smaller aperture entirely separated from one another. A closure or lid can usefully be incorporated whereby the articles may easily be reached from above the top surface of the dispenser through the larger aperture, and fed through from underneath the top surface to the small aperture. Thereafter, the articles may be dispensed through the small aperture, e.g., in a pop-up mode. The arrangement of the elements is conducive to one-handed dispensing of articles from the dispenser.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,299,017 discloses a dispensing face for a dispensing unit wherein the dispensing face comprises lateral outer edges and longitudinal outer edges and not less than two orifices. The first orifice and the second orifice are coplanar, the second orifice being independent of the first orifice and being disposed at a distance not greater than 20 millimeters from the first orifice.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,526,291 discloses a lid selectively movable between a first position covering at least a portion of the top and a second position removed from the top. The lid includes a first portion adapted to cover the dispensing opening when the lid is in the first position thereof and a second portion adapted to cover the slit when the lid is in the first position thereof. The second portion of the lid is integrally but flexibly connected to the first portion of the lid, such that when the lid is in the first position thereof the second portion of the lid may be selectively pivoted with respect to the first portion of the lid away from the top, thereby to uncover the slit.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a dispenser for pop-up tissues comprising a small tissue dispensing aperture and a normally closed manipulating aperture whereby a user's fingers may be introduced through said manipulating aperture to have access to the tissues within the package and for introducing a leading edge of the first tissue through the tissue dispensing aperture.